Reversal

Don't you sometimes get that feeling that your ideals and expressions change completely over the years? I often feel that when I see my old posts and cant help but feel "did I type this piece of shit?" well, it often feels like that for me, so have pretty much decided to re-write most of my posts these days, bear with me.

Raw has been, is, and probably will be my lifetime project, as the supposed writer I am, its the "Big story" I have been improving for about 10 years, we all have these kind of projects we like to talk about every now and then, as I have grew up, I always end up talking about these "small worlds" we have with fellow Internet and real-life friends, and really get inspired by doing so, so in this section, I humbly type what my world is about, and hopefully someday it will be a real game, comic, or just a story you may stumble upon, that is why I start here, so someday this stops being just dreams and someday turns into something real.

Introduction:

Its hot, its dark, its full of fire and industrial technology, its the underground world of RAW, a dirty and violent place where freaky rusted technology and fighting meet, gigantic caverns, deep tunnels made of rusted steel, abandoned factories, invading plagues of fungi and giant spiders, its like living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world.

Feel like getting out of this world? too bad, getting to the surface means going through a thick shell of hard stone never pierced before, or more like, the technology to pierce that ceiling is too expensive and obsolete, anyway, who wants to go to the surface? there are not even records left of people going to the surface, people have lived underground THAT long, its just general history: that one of the many human space colonies once settled to this gigantic piece of rock thousands of years ago.

Time to get sad? not really, the civilization in RAW is not a depressing, dying one, in fact, humans are as hot-blooded and strong willed as ever, they are just adjusted to a different environment than other civilizations, life here consists of the willing of the strongest, in general, people make a living from finding whatever resources they can, moving convoys, there are so many unknown human colonies and convoys lost in the underground world, that you never really know what you will find the next day from drifting in some tunnel, there are also, settled amazingly huge metropolises, what you could call the "normal people" the lifestyles of these can relate to how we normally live, they have Internet, and good transportation.

Raw takes place in a special region, called "El matadero" this one, is probably one of the most violent regions in the entire planet, apart from the fact it is on a much lower level, reaching the core of the planet, making it a very hot place, the people here only live from 2 ways, stealing or bounty hunting, the first kill and steal whatever they feel like, while the other do a living by keeping a watch from the killers and stealers, usually by killing them.

Its a complete outlaw area, full of bounty hunter clans and war zones, even crazier, there is a law that if an outlaw with a bounty, kills another head bounty, his own bounty gets "paid" the exact amount of the person he killed, resulting in every important person in the area being a possible "target" for the safety of another.

Most of these bounty and outlaw clans seek either survival or wealth, its a never ending cycle of killing and being killed, but even in this horrible region, spawned from an underground civilization, there is a very interesting clan in particular.

A clan with objectives that would even look ridiculous for normal, people from the cities, this clan seeks to go to the surface, what this humanity has forgotten, to find out what is left of that place.

As far as I have told you, RAW sounds like some sort of Sci-fi theme star wars movie of sorts, except, the focus on this story is different from most stories.

First of all, this story doesn't seek an "end" a conclusion, something like this clan finding the surface and THE END AND SO ON HUMANS FOUND A BETTER PATH, I want to create a world were many stories can come up, a world that can do more than just a "cool story".

Settled that, RAW is inspired on delivering Hardcore, speedy and intelligent Fights, some inspired on the so hated shounen-manga genre, introducing freaky characters with interesting battle styles and catchy skills, fighting in interesting industrial ruins and caves in fact you can compare RAW to games like metal gear or guilty gear (Raw could turn out to be a game) where you are introduced these interesting enemies or situations for yourself to defeat, RAW is a combination of the fighting in guilty gear and the adventure feeling and twists of metal gear, in a different, post-apocalyptic underground setting.

So mainly, the story is about this clan seeking a way to go to the surface, while it tries to survive from the many other killers and situations that take place in "el matadero".

Perfect example that an Rpg doesnt need "Next-gen" graphics to look cool as hell, these ouigies are just artistically mind blowing.

Finally a Tales worth being called tales, it had been a long time we had a good one since rebirth, though Abyss did a good work, The real hardcore tales are those Hardcore 2D fighters like Eternia, the bad news its not coming to america, meh.. who cares? I can still import it and Learn japanese/Use a Translation FAQ/Ask in forums, Symphonia fans dont know what they are losing.. I hate their excuses, its either "Ps2 sucks", "I dont know Japanese" or "ToS is still better", these guys are SO ADDICTED to freaking Tales of symphonia they just keep finishing for more than 8 times, get to lv255 and beat abyss till their eyes bleed, they think its the best RPG ever, yet, they dont give a DAMN about other tales games apart from symphonia, I just cant freaking understand it, I played Symphonia too, Loved presea and Zelos, got their paths, beat it in on Maniac like 2 times.. whatever, MOVE ON.

(Stahn has a pretty aggresive fighting style, covered in flames created by his swordian Dymlos, one of his attacks resembles a beast, While Leon has a much more perfected style of fine slashes, In the old version, Leon only used his swordian Chaltier, in this one, he also packs a Knife on its other hand, giving him a much more original style than the rest of the cast, We who played ToDj2 know the real reason though.)

But thats not the point.. as some of you guys may remember, Tales of destiny for Ps1 was the most outdated tales ever, and Ironically one of the most populars in japan, its sequel became a best seller, and Phantasia had a crapload of remakes (the lastest is a PsP full-voice one lol) from all the tales, Destiny was the hardest to play for its crappy battle system, but had pretty damn good puzzles, music and originality in its dungeons, not to mention the story had a sting of originality here and there, Oberon corp guys are the best bunch of bad guys I have seen in long time, its amazing the difference between this one and its following in the series: Eternia, which is one of the best ones so far.

Fans who dared to play Ps1 Destiny will orgasm with finally being able to use Stahn or Leon the way they should have, with ougies comparable to the legendary ToD2j or Rebirth ones, or skit-talks to have their favorite characters more charismatic than ever, this is an amazing tales to the series.

(Johnny Kicking ass, "WAAAOOOO" )

Gameplay from the other side, seems like another addicting system, since they added some kind of aerial combo system I have yet to test, and the ENCHATS ARE BACK OH YEAH (enchants are modyfing your special attacks like Demon fang, so you can poison the enemy, regen more sp or cancel it into other attacks), and Barbatos, if anyone remembers, rapes your team If you start to grind on the fields, TAKE THAT GRINDERS LOL.

another nice detail is the fact that the Talking Swordians now get their deserved screens of their human forms, so you get a better idea that these where actual people.

I still cant believe we are getting a remake of this game, I just remembered how I enjoyed all of the game, it had so amazing characters, Mary had such an interesting background.. Leon was so sad... even Johnny is hell interesting when he joins you.. and yet.. its gonna be so damn ignored in america.. this game simply doesnt deserve it...

(Ignetos, Clemente and Atwight talking, All of them, swordians)

( Hope they give a better role to Marian this time... )

(Exploring the Aethersphere was one of the best Rpg experiences Ive ever had, hope they keep the original themes remixed..)'

(My favorite character: Woodrow on the left, his swordian is Ignetos, a wind user, His first ougi on the video, is a cameo of Kyles Souhajin ougi on ToD2j, while his second one, is a remake of his legendary last move in the old Ps1 version, he also seems to have ditched his bow skills and focus on only Wind sword skills to give Chelsea more originality: Pure awesomenes.)